The Frozen North (WIP)
by kilometers13
Summary: Takes place after the first outbreaks in the Last of Us. Learning to live after the apocalypse. Multiple protagonists. First fanfiction, critique (the destructive kind especially) is encouraged.
1. Chapter 1

"Jesus, Rachel. Stop snoring" my sister whined. "I barely slept a wink."

"I hope that's not true," I replied, "we've got a long day ahead of us."

I hopped up on the balls of my feet, swaying back and forth groggily. Hannah pulled me to my feet. I hugged my older sister.

"Good morning."

The campsite was hastily put together. We'd holed up in an abandoned cabin by some lake. We travelled light, moving from spot to spot in day-length increments. I'd say we were somewhere around mid-eastern Minnesota by that point. Still a ways to go until we got to Ontario. Hopefully Nick was still holed up in Thunder Bay. We could only hope.

I grabbed my backpack and flashlight, munched on a breakfast bar, and slung my rifle over my shoulder. We slept in our clothes, so we'd be ready by morning. Hannah grabbed her knives and pistol and we were off.

"You wanna take the lead today?" Hannah asked me

"Why not."

I flipped out my compass, checking the dial for north.

"We've either got to go around the lake or through it" I said.

"Let's take the scenic route" Hannah joked. I took one last look around. The forest was beautiful. It was the time of the year, between summer and fall, when everything was a bright, verdant green and the air filled your lungs with that certain sweet feeling. The lake glistened with contrasting blue and orange hues as the reflection of the sunrise danced across the waters surface. We'd only seen a few infected within the last few days, so we felt fairly safe. You could almost forget about how shitty the world had turned.

"How long's it been since Day One?" I wondered aloud.

"Shit, has to be at least, what, eight months now?"

"Wow. Nothing's ever gonna be the same"

"Heh, no kidding. Let's get walking."

We began our trek north.

"Slow down. I gotta catch my breath."

"Wow. Rach, hurry up. You've got to see this" Hannah said urgently. She stood atop a large rock structure surrounded by trees. I clambered up on the side, placing my foot on a lower boulder.

"Come on, Hannah. I'm too short to reach that ledge." She reached down and pulled me up.

"Thanks. Now what the hell could be so magnif- oh my god." It took a second to sink in. The rock hung over the ledge of a marvelous cliff, jutting over a vast expanse of pure white. The snow blanketed the forestry, like an artist's blank canvas. It reached out northbound, taking up my entire vision.

Snow was a good sign. Definitely a good sign. We were much farther north now. Thunder Bay was nearly on the horizon. The final stretch.

"We haven't seen snow since Day One" Hannah said sadly. Damn. Day One. The memories washed over me violently.

Our family drove up to Duluth for a weekend at Aunt Kat's. It was a family tradition, but the last time we were doing it. Hannah, after her gap year with us, was leaving to college early to live with Nick the remainder of the year. But then the reports started coming in. Abnormal amount of hospitalizations, an unknown virus spreading, "riots" in small towns. But across the globe, it was starting. The global pandemic that would bring humanity to its knees. That night, I awoke to the screams of doomed souls. Despite being nearly seventeen, I still slept on the top bunk in my aunts guest cabin, but that's not where I woke up. I jolted up, in a cold sweat, flat on the floor.

"Hannah? Hannah! Something's happening." I roused my sister out of bed.

"Rachel, what the hell? What's- ohmigod." She ran over to the window as a semi, completely doused in flames, rolled down the street. People ran wild past our house, fleeing from unknown terrors.

"We have to get to the house" Hannah told me, gripping my wrist and leading me out the door. The cabin sat a few meters away from the house, in a rural cul-de-sac just outside of Duluth. Hannah sprinted toward the house, dragging me along behind her. To our left, people ran rampantly down the street, opposite of us. To our right was the sprawling forest that was my aunts backyard. We burst through the back door into the kitchen.

"Mom? Dad? Aunt Kat? Where the hell is everyone?" Hannah yelled. We ran into the dining room, then the living room, and then upstairs.

"Somebody! What's going on!?" Hannah stiff-armed our parents bedroom door and we ran inside.

"Oh thank god" I gasped. Our parents stood by the window, oblivious to our cries. They must've been focused on the crisis outside.

"Mom, dad, it's us. What the hell is going on?" Hannah asked, frustrated. Our parents turned to answer. No answer came. They just stared at us.

"What?" Then we noticed their faces. They were our parents, but something about them had changed. They were... Pale. Shaken. Without warning, they lunged at us.

"Holy shit!" I screamed, flinging myself into the bookshelf. Encyclopedias showered down on me. My father collided with Hannah, slamming her hard into the floor.

"Jesus, dad! Get off!" Hannah screamed. She struggled under his weight, while my mother fixated her gaze on me. She rammed me back into the bookshelf, sending another wave of books to shower down. She pinned me against the wall, grinding and chomping her teeth. I held her jaws at bay.

"Mom!" I yelled. She continued chomping and pushing me more and more against the wall. I could feel my resistance wavering.

"I'm sorry." I slammed my palm into her temple. She recoiled, giving me a second to steady myself, but was back on me in seconds. I rammed my knee into her abdomen and picked up a heavy hardback.

"Mom, I don't want to-" she slammed me against the wall, knocking the wind out of me. I heard Hannah scream in pain.

"Get off!" She yelled, pushing my father aside and grabbing the closest object, which happened to be a snow globe. She backed up on her rear, her eyes on my father. I felt a sharp sensation in my gut. My mother was scratching at my stomach through my jacket. I elbowed her in the throat and delivered a hard kick to her chest. I pulled Hannah to her feet and picked up another hardback. My mother was sprawled on the floor, but my father lunged at Hannah again. But this time, Hannah dodged, sending my dad into the wall. We backed away, now afraid of what our parents were reduced to. My mother was clambering to her feet, but we were out the door. I slammed it shut and tipped the grandfather clock over, barricading it.

"Jesus. What the hell happened to them?" I asked Hannah. I was scared, and could tell she was scared too.

"I don't know, but we need help."

We jogged down the stairs. However, we forgot someone. Aunt Kat lunged out from behind the steps and rammed me into the wall. She struck my chin with a fist and tried to take a bite out of me. Hannah pummeled the snow globe against the back of her head, and then again, and then again. The snow globe shattered on the fourth blow, leaving Aunt Kat with some reasonably sized shards of glass in her skull. But she continued wriggling. Hannah delivered another chunk of glass into her skull, and she stopped squirming.

"Rachel."

"What?"

"Go get the keys to the pickup and anything useful you can find. Something bad is happening. We need to go find some help."


	2. Chapter 2

In the movies, after something traumatic, the protagonist will always say that "it went by like a blur" or "I went into autopilot". But that didn't happen to me. I was a wreck, curled in a ball on the worn-out leather seats of the pickup. After we escaped the town, we got on the northbound highway. We drove silently, Hannah's knuckles white on the steering wheel. After about an hour we hit the first checkpoint.

"Get out of the car" a voice ordered us. Floodlights blinded us from all angles. We didn't comply.

"Get out of the damn car!" yelled the soldier. He banged his fist on the window. Outfitted in bulletproof body armor and a sleek looking assault rifle, he dragged us out of the truck and shoved us against some kind of portable riot wall.

"Got any bites or scratches?" asked the quieter voice of a female soldier that had sidled up next to us. We both shook our heads.

"No, ma'am, why would we have bites on us? Can you tell us what's going on?" Hannah inquired.

"You shut your mouth, redhead. Let us ask the questions." The first soldier grunted.

"Lay off of 'em, Briggs" the second soldier ordered, "Now it'll be in your best interest to cooperate. We just need to search you for bites or scratches, and if you're clean, you'll be released."

Hannah and I were ushered into a small walled-off area past the gate. We were dropped in separate containing cells and stripped down to our underwear. The guard checked us for bites or scratches, then gave us our possessions and led us back to the pickup. Hannah and I still hadn't been told the situation, so we asked the nicer guard before leaving. She told us everything, about the disease, the global outbreaks, the millions dead, the unrecoverable infected. And we drove off. There were no more checkpoints after that. We drove on the highway until we ran out of gas, and then we took to the woods. We would travel a little each day, and set up camp at night. And now here we are. Not much of a backstory, I guess.

Hannah and I sat looking at the view, taking the trip down memory lane. Then, I noticed the runners.

"Hannah." I nudged her elbow.

"What?" She looked at me, oblivious to the threat shambling up beside us.

"Move!" I grabbed her elbow and pulled her up. She fumbled for a weapon, and I drew my pistol. The closest runner lunged at me, but I sidestepped. It tripped on its feet but collided with Hannah.

"Agh!" The runner scratched at her torso. I aimed at its head, but hesitated, not wanting to hit Hannah. Another runner, more bulky than the first, swung at me and knocked me to my knees. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my head, I turned and fired a round into its abdomen. I turned back to Hannah's attacker and fired. Blood sprayed out onto Hannah's face, and she scurried back, gun now in hand. We turned towards the remaining attackers and fired off the rest of our rounds. I pulled Hannah to her feet and we inspected the bodies for supplies. As the adrenaline wore off, I felt pain gradually increase in my head.

"Rach? You okay?" Hannah asked, noticing my weariness. I felt woozy.

"Rachel?" My legs buckled.

"Rachel!" I yelled. She collapsed, her legs swinging off the ledge. She was slipping. I dropped to a prone position, desperately grabbing for her wrist. We came all this way. She can't die from fainting! I got a hold of her wrist, and for once, her small stature aided me. She was light enough that I could prevent her from completely falling off the rocky overhang. But I could feel her slipping through my grip.

"Rachel! Get up!" She'd never fainted before. I struggled to keep her up. I began to slip myself. I managed to grip my feet in a gap in the rocks, but Rachel dangled like a rag doll. I couldn't hold her much longer. In desperation, I heaved with the last of my strength. It wasn't enough. My foothold gave way and we slipped from the cliff.


	3. Chapter 3

There's the problem. This car had no sparkplug.

"Alice, go grab a spare sparkplug from the garage."

"Yes, granddad" she replied. Quite the little helper. She held up well, even under this much stress. Shame to lose your parents that young.

The SUV had a reasonable amount of gas left and I could tell it would run, if it got that sparkplug. The garage was just up the street, but with all the empty vehicles piled up in between here and there, it would take Alice a few minutes to get back. This block was in the more rural neighborhood, with near identical houses bordering the street. It would've been a nicer neighborhood to live in, if the world was still livable. A seven-year old surviving the apocalypse.

"Granddad! Is it this big circle thingy?"

"No, that's probably the alternator, little one. I'm looking for the thing that looks like a-" What did a sparkplug look like? "Kind of like a little cone with a spring on the end." I said. I listened for her response. She's a smart one. Takes after her mother. She'd find it eventually.

"Granddad!"

"Yes, little one? Did you find it?"

"GRANDDAD!" She sounded terrified. I bolted through the labyrinth of vehicles as fast as my pudgy, aged body could manage. Alice stood in front of a tipped over semi staring at two infected clambering over the vehicle. I reached for my revolver, only to feel air. Dammit! I left it back in the garage. Alice was frozen solid. The infected dropped from the semi and charged her. I sprinted at them and swung my wrench at the closest head. It connected with a crack, sending splinters of bone marrow and drops of blood through the air. As the body fell, I kicked hard into the second ones stomach, sending it sprawling against the semi. I held it down and repeatedly struck it with the wrench until the damn thing stopped wriggling. I heard a sob. Alice stood frozen behind me. A stream of blood flowed from a wound on her shoulder. I scooped her up and carried her back to the garage. Poor girl.

The garage was an abandoned body shop that we took refuge in. A mid sized sedan sat stationary in the center of the room, surrounded by various tools and materials. Two cots lay in the rear corner. We'd arrived shortly after Alice's parents had died. My poor Claire. She died protecting her daughter. We were holed up in a Starbucks. Keith and I were barricading the doors, and Claire was coaxing crying Alice. A runner broke through the window and sprinted at Keith. I backed up, scared out of my mind. It pinned Keith down and bit into his shoulder. I'll never forget the scream he made. Claire yelled at me to help him, but it was too late. By the time I had pried the wriggling runner off of him, he'd already been infected. He asked me to kill him. End it before he could hurt anyone. I couldn't do it. Then the runners went for Claire. I tried to stop them, but it was too late for her too. I fought them off and kneeled beside my daughter.

"Promise me-" she uttered

"What? Claire, stay with me! Promise you what?"

"Protect Alice. God knows I couldn't." She coughed.

"You're not dying. You're not leaving me! Come on, Claire!" I knew it was too late, that my daughter was already dead, but I couldn't accept it.

"Please." She coughed again, and stopped breathing. I held her in my arms and sobbed.

Now Alice was hurt. I'd let my daughter and son-in-law die. I'm not letting Alice die. The cut was deep, but it wasn't severe. I laid her down on her cot and pressed down on the wound with a cloth.

"OWWW!" Alice yelled. She was responsive.

"Alice, honey. What happened?"

"I was coming back to you, but-" she winced as I applied more pressure. "But I heard a crashing sound. I looked up at the top of that truck thingy and one of..." She paused.

"One of them?" I guessed.

"Yeah. One of them had broken through poky wire and- ow, quit pushing on it- and a brick or something fell on me."

"But you weren't bitten or scratched?"

"Nuh-uh"

"Okay, you've got to apply pressure to the wound for it to stop bleeding, so put your hand right here and keep it there till I get back." I instructed. The first aid kit was hanging on the wall near the garage door. I grabbed it and took out some hydrogen peroxide and a bandage.

"Hand me that rag." She flung it to me, and I poured some hydrogen peroxide onto it.

"Okay, this might hurt a bit. Move your hand." I dabbed the cut with the hydrogen peroxide soaked rag.

"Aagh!" She winced as I cleaned the wound with the rag. I wrapped the bandage tightly around her shoulder and chest until it sufficiently compressed the wound.

"Okay, you're good." I helped her to her feet.

"Did you find that sparkplug?" I asked.

"Ummm... No." she replied reluctantly. I chuckled.

"Let's go find it then."


	4. Chapter 4

"Where's the music?" Alice asked.

"What music, honey?"

"The music for the car."

"We don't have any CDs."

"But I want the music!"

"You can't play music without the CDs, little one." She sat back with a pout, folding her arms. I sat in the front seat of the olive Ford Explorer, and Alice pouted in the back. We had packed up all our supplies, intending on leaving the garage. I still wasn't sure where we would go. One thing was certain, however. I needed to find someone to care for Alice when I was gone, or unable to protect her myself.

"Where are we going?" Alice whined.

"I told you, little one. The military is in Ontario. They're telling everyone in the region to head on down to the quarantine zone." While these rumors were true, I wasn't so sure the quarantine zone was still operational. Something was happening to the infected. They seemed to be, evolving.

"When are we going to get theeeerrre?" Alice continued whining. She kicked the back of my seat. "I'm booorred."

"We'll be there soon, don't fret. Your toys are in the duffel bag."

We drove in silence, me watching the road, Alice contently playing with her stuffed bear. There were certain times like this when you forgot about the infected, all the dead, all the pain, and just bathed in contentness.

The highway was surrounded by beautiful snow capped trees and wild habitants of the forest. There was one upside to all the death and loss. You could finally get lost in the beauty of the world without humanities many distractions. No one worried about schoolwork or mortgages during the apocalypse. But it was no where near to making up for the death and loss. The world would never be the same.

"Granddad, look!" Alice pointed out the window at a herd of grazing deer.

"Wow. They seem untouched by the pla-" My head hit the dashboard. The world tilted forwards as our car reared up. A jet-black van, approaching from the other direction, had collided with ours. The car smacked down on the highway with a crash, delivering another blow to my head as it connected with the headrest. We remained seated, dumbfounded. Then the airbags went off, hitting my head to the headrest again.

"Oh my god. Mai, grab some gauze or something." The voice dimly penetrated the windshield. I heard my door open.

"Oh, shit. He's got a kid in the back. Are you hurt, kiddo?" I heard Alice's door open.

"Don't... You dare touch her." I managed, wheezing a little. I felt woozy from all the head trauma.

"Sir, you're bleeding." Must be the damn bandits. They've been prowling around this area. Caused me a bit of trouble.

"I'm not afraid of you. I've dealt with the likes of you people before." I growled.

"Well that's slightly racist," said a second, more feminine voice. A female bandit? My vision began clearing up. To my left was a young, muscular Asian man with a crowbar, prying open the car door. I looked back at Alice. A female Asian teen was checking Alice for wounds. These weren't bandits. They were survivors, like us.

"Sir? You're looking kind of unsteady." The young man helped me out of the car.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said, "leg's a bit sore, but I'll manage."

"Really sorry 'bout your car. That turn surprised me."

"It's okay, really. Thank you for checking on us, I know how easy it would be just to keep going."

He recoiled in surprise. "Are you kidding? We couldn't do that! We just hit you, we're not going to leave you here for those... Things."

"Thank you, we appreciate it. I'm going to go check on Alice."

I walked around the car to Alice's door. The teen turned from the car. Alice poked her head out behind her.

"I'm okay, granddad" she piped.

"Couple'a bumps and bruises, but she's good" the teenager said. "I'm Mai. The dumb one's my brother, Izzy." She gestured to the taller one with a smile.

"Uh, Isaac, actually." Isaac scowled at his sister.

"Nice to meet you both. I'm Albert, and this is..." I swayed uneasily. I stumbled forward, knocking Isaac off balance.

"Woah there, you okay?" Maybe that dashboard had done more damage than I thought.

"I think I'm fine. Might be... Might be a minor concussion, but nothing serious." I managed as I collapsed again. Isaac lifted me back on my feet.

"I think you need to lie down. We've got some water and a mattress in the van." He led me around the old automobile and to the rear. Mai popped open the doors.

"Let's get you situated." Isaac assisted me into the rear of the van. While it was very worn, the interior felt lived in, giving in a hospitable feeling. The mattress lay on the right side of the van. A mini fridge and generator sat opposite behind the seats. A small radio and laptop computer sat on an oak wooden desk.

"Feel free to make yourself comfortable." Isaac said, gesturing towards the mattress.

"Thanks, but I'm not really that tired." My head hit the pillow.


End file.
